Press Releases

Nicolas Bourriaud has been appointed as the Gulbenkian Curator of Contemporary Art at Tate Britain, to lead on the development and realisation of the Tate Triennial in spring 2009.

This new post, which is for a two and a half year period, is sponsored by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which holds at its Lisbon-based Centro de Arte Moderna one of the largest collections of British art of the 1960s and 70s outside the UK. The Foundation has a long association with Tate: the UK Branch initiated and supported the seminal post-war exhibition 54/64: Painting and Sculpture of a Decade, and in 1969 was the major contributor to the construction of the new galleries in which the Triennial is now regularly presented. In its 50th anniversary year in 2006 the Foundation was sole sponsor of the Tate Triennial and, at the same time, lent Tate Britain a selection of its British works for a special Gulbenkian display.

Nicolas Bourriaud has established an international reputation as a curator and writer, in particular through his influential publications, Relational Aesthetics, 1998, and Postproduction, 2002. He was Co-Director (with Jerome Sans) of Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 1999–2005, and in 2006 was Artistic Director of Nuit Blanche, an annual one-night outdoor exhibition in the streets of Paris. He has recently curated the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. He takes up the position of Gulbenkian Curator on 1 June 2007.

Siân Ede, Arts Director of the Gulbenkian Foundation said, “We are very pleased to support this important post, not just because of our long relationship with Tate but because of our continuing interest in promoting pioneering, high-quality, risk-taking art.”

The Tate Triennial in 2009 will be the fourth to be presented at Tate Britain. The aim of the Triennial is to provide an important forum for the discussion of contemporary British art both in Britain and abroad.

Press Enquiries:
Helen Beeckmans, Head of Press, Tate Press Office
Tel: 020 7887 4940 Email: helen.beeckmans@tate.org.uk

Further Information:
Siân Ede, Arts Director, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, UK Branch
Tel: 020 7636 5313 Email: info@gulbenkian.org.uk